SAN ANTONIO — The security requirements of the Trade Act of 2002 will enable the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection the opportunity to refine the way Customs collects data on ocean cargo, but carriers will still be required to file that data 24 hours before a container is loaded aboard a ship at a foreign port, according to Charles Bartoldus, Customs' director of targeting.

"The trade act refines the existing rules," Bartoldus told members of the National Customs Brokers and Forwarders Association of America meeting this week. He said that the act outlines the future of cargo security for the agency.

Bartoldus spoke at a session during which members of the Treasury Advisory Committee on Commercial Operations of the U.S. Customs Service (COAC) discussed a report to Customs on March 14 that recommended ways to implement the legislation. The law will require electronic reporting of cargo data for exports and imports in all modes of transportation. Customs must put the rule on the books by Oct. 1.

Among other things, the COAC ocean transportation subcommittee recommended that Customs collect cargo data from more than one source, including importers, agents, brokers or third-party logistics providers, said Carol Fuchs, subcommittee chair, and an attorney with the KMZ Rosenman law firm.

Bartoldus said that Customs is looking at multiple sources for cargo data.

Under the 24-hour rule, Customs collects cargo data filed by carriers and non-vessel-operating common carriers through the Automated Manifest System.

R.G. Edmonson